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The Canadian Hydrographic Service conducts surveys and produces official marine charts that describe Canadian waterways. These charts indicate depths, identify hazards and describe the positions of aids to navigation to determine safe passages, avoid disasters and protect the marine environment.

In the summer of 2014, members of a multi-disciplinary team continued the multi-year search for HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the lost ships of Sir John Franklin's expedition, which were beset and later abandoned in the ice of Victoria Strait in 1848, west of King William Island. The team discovered HMS Erebus in southern Queen Maud Gulf, generating extensive interest around the world.

During the 2014 Victoria Strait expedition, Scott Youngblut was the Hydrographer-in-Charge with Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Canadian Hydrographic Service. As Hydrographer-in-charge, Youngblut was responsible for planning and leading the multi-disciplinary arctic mapping missions conducted aboard both the Coast Guard's CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier (using the launches CSL Kinglett and CSL Gannet) and the Royal Canadian Navy's HMCS Kingston.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM NOON, CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier: a native of West Vancouver, BC, joined the Canadian Coast Guard in 1981. Captain Noon served as a seaman and then Lifeboat Coxswain in Bull Harbour, Powell River, and Ganges, BC. In 1984 he attended the US Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat Surf Course at Cape Disappointment, Washington and CCG Coxswains Course in Cornwall, Ontario.

Captain Bill Noon of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier reports on the search. The 2014 Victoria Strait Expeditionisa bold Canadian initiative that will assist in the Parks Canada-led search for the lost Franklin ships in Canada's Arctic. The project, which is comprised of a number of individual projects, brings together public and private organizations to advance Canada's interests in a number of priority areas.

The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) is an organization under the Science Branch at Fisheries and Oceans Canada that employs state-of-the art technologies to conduct hydrographic surveys of Canada's lakes, rivers and oceans to ensure their safe, sustainable and navigable use. With over 130 years of experience, the Canadian Hydrographic Service is also responsible for publishing and updating paper and electronic nautical charts and navigation publications, monitoring tides, currents and water levels and providing related services.

The discovery of HMS Erebus, one of Sir John Franklin's two lost ships, is a significant occasion for Fisheries and Oceans Canada as it showcases the important work of the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). Along with public and private partners, the Canadian Hydrographic Service and the Canadian Coast Guard joined the Victoria Strait Project with a number of common objectives such as mapping Canada's Arctic seabed, conducting arctic research and searching for the lost ships of Sir John Franklin's 1845 voyage to find the Northwest Passage. The discovery of one of the lost ships provides us with an important opportunity to recognize the work of both the Canadian Hydrographic Service and the Canadian Coast Guard during the Victoria Strait Project and, more importantly, their work in improving navigation safety as well as contributing to scientific advancements.

On Tue-9-Sep-2014 the Prime Minister of Canada announced that one of the two ships of the lost Franklin expedition had been located in Canada's Arctic. This historic event in our nation's history represents contributions of diverse skills, technologies and capabilities from a variety of organizations, from both the public and private sector. The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) played a leading role in this year's project, as it has for a number of years.

Follow the team as DFO's Canadian Hydrographic Service and Canadian Coast Guard along with several other government organizations, the University of Victoria and the Arctic Research Foundation search for HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the lost ships of the Franklin expedition, and conduct other tasks contributing to greater Arctic understanding.